Strengthening peace agreement 'most important'
Foreign Minister Brian Cowen today identified consolidation of the Good Friday Agreement on Northern Ireland as ‘‘the single most important challenge for the next Dublin government.
Speaking at a General Election campaign briefing in Dublin on his Fianna Fail party’s policy on Northern Ireland, Mr Cowen also called the negotiation and implementation of the 1998 peace accord ‘‘the most important political achievement of the past year years.’’
The minister added: ‘‘securing and consolidating the agreement is our historic task for the future.’’
He pointed to dealing with the issue of confidence-building as a major assignment for the next five years.
And singling out the existence of paramilitary groups like the IRA groups as the biggest obstacle to that aim, he declared: ‘‘Fianna Fail wishes to see as soon as practicable the voluntary disbandment of all paramilitary organisations - and a successful conclusion to the terrorist arms decommissioning process.
He also urged the IRA’s Sinn Fein political allies to join the Northern Ireland policing board and said nationalists and republicans should have no hesitation in joining the new Police Service of Northern Ireland.
Mr Cowen stressed it would be the ‘‘utmost priority’’ of Fianna Fail if returned to power in the May 17 poll to hand on the achievement of a lasting peace on the island of Ireland.
A Fianna Fail policy document on the issue said the party had been committed since its foundation nearly 80 years ago to achieving peacefully the unity of Ireland.
But it also made clear ‘‘It has long been clear that the conditions for achieving it have yet to be completed.
‘‘The priority at the present time is to consolidate the Good Friday Agreement before raising as an immediate prospect the possibility of a united Ireland.’’
The document also called for Northern Ireland Assembly representatives and members of the Dail to meet from time to time to discuss issues of shared interest and concern ‘‘in a purely consultative capacity.’’
And it pleaded for ‘‘far more vigour’’ from all sectors of society, including the churches, in combating sectarian attitudes and practice in Northern Ireland.
